Personal inventory and product support system

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, apparatus, and machine-readable media enable managing information about products. In a device associated with a user, a method is implemented to receive data identifying a product acquired by the user, configure the device to receive product support content for the acquired product based on the identifying data, the product support content having been curated from a plurality of content servers on behalf of the user, including product recall information received from a product recall server, receive a notification that curated product support content for the product is available, and present the curated product support content to the user. The method may further include organizing an inventory of the products, including generating folders to contain the data identifying the products, receiving user input to manipulate the data identifying the products into the folders, and presenting the data contained in the folders in a personal inventory report. Corresponding methods, systems, apparatus, and machine-readable media for managing information about products can be implemented in servers supporting the user device.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technical field is generally related to cloud services and storageinterfacing to computer software applications, and in particular mobileapplications, that enable personal inventory management and productsupport.

BACKGROUND

Retail sales of consumer products have increased dramatically over thelast few decades, with only temporary declines during periods ofrecession. At the same time the life cycle of some products isexpanding. In addition, many products incorporate more complextechnology than ever before. From TV remotes and alarm clocks, to themost sophisticated washing machines and microwave ovens, user manualsare often inadequate and/or difficult to use; and for many products, auser manual is no longer even provided.

As a result, the product support needs of consumers have expanded alongwith the growth in retail sales. Needs range from maintenance and repairto education on how to use the product, to the need to be informed inreal-time when there is a product recall, even if the product waspurchased as a used item. When product support needs are not met,consumers may return a product unnecessarily. This results in not onlylost sales for the product manufacturer and retailer, but many returnedproducts cannot be resold, and the cost of recycling their parts isprohibitive. As a result, these products are dumped into a landfill,which hurts the environment.

A number of different types of consumer product support services haveproliferated to meet the ever-growing needs of consumers, especiallywith the ubiquitous availability of web-based services and social media.These range from conventional customer support provided by the productmanufacturer and/or retailer via telephone, interactive websites andchat sessions, to an assortment of self-help styled forums that provideless formal support based on collective and/or expert user experiencewith products. In each of these cases, the consumer must access akeyboard to enter search criteria such as the product name, serialnumber, or model number for a particular product. This can be burdensometo the user, particularly when using a mobile device client.

Because a typical consumer is likely to acquire products from severaldifferent manufacturers or retailers, locating and using consumerproduct support services offered in so many different ways from so manydifferent sources can be daunting. Relying on web searches to findinformation or interacting with customer support representatives can betime-consuming and frustrating, especially when using mobile devices.

In addition, a typical consumer owns an increasingly large number ofitems over the course of their lifetime. Some items have a warrantyperiod, and some items are covered by property insurance. Other itemsare part of a growing collection, such as a wine collection, or an artcollection, or a clothing collection. As the number of such items grows,the consumer is burdened with an increased responsibility to keep trackof their items.

When items need to be maintained or repaired, consumers must either findor purchase the correct parts and tools, and perform the necessarymaintenance or repair, or find and retain the appropriate servicer toperform the needed work.

SUMMARY

Methods, systems, apparatus, and machine-readable media enable managinginformation about products. In a device associated with a user, a methodis implemented to receive data identifying a product acquired by theuser, configure the device to receive product support content for theacquired product based on the identifying data, the product supportcontent having been curated from a plurality of content servers onbehalf of the user, including product recall information received from aproduct recall server, receive a notification that curated productsupport content for the product is available, and present the curatedproduct support content to the user. The method may further includeorganizing an inventory of the products, including generating folders tocontain the data identifying the products, receiving user input tomanipulate the data identifying the products into the folders, andpresenting the data contained in the folders in a personal inventoryreport. Corresponding methods, systems, apparatus, and machine-readablemedia for managing information about products can be implemented inservers supporting the user device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which likereferences indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates of an overview of an embodiment of a personalinventory and product support system in an operating environment;

FIG. 2 illustrates the personal inventory and product support system ofFIG. 1 in further detail in which the system interfaces with externalproduct support servers to supplement the system's own curated productsupport database in accordance with embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates the exemplary personal inventory and product supportsystem of FIG. 1 in further detail in which selected components of thesystem, including the curated product support database, the user/productinventory database, and personal inventory and product support clientinteroperate in accordance with embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates the exemplary personal inventory and product supportsystem of FIG. 1 in which the user product/inventory database componentof the system is shown in further detail in accordance with embodimentsof the invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a process that may be utilized inan user device to operate a client in conjunction with a server inaccordance with embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a process that may be utilized ina server device to operate a server in conjunction with a client inaccordance with embodiments of the invention;

FIGS. 7-12 illustrate examples of the mobile device client graphicaluser interface (GUI) implemented on a touch display device as describedin accordance with embodiments of the invention. Specifically, FIG. 7illustrates three views of the initial sign in GUI, FIG. 8 illustratesthree views of the mail folders and item detail screen GUI, FIG. 9illustrates three additional views of the item detail screen GUI of FIG.8, FIG. 10A illustrates a view of a category-specific screen GUI, FIG.10B illustrates two views of another category-specific screen GUI, FIG.11 illustrates two views of screens for adding items GUI and acorresponding item detail screen GUI, FIG. 12A illustrates another viewof a screen for adding items GUI, and FIG. 12B illustrates another viewof an item detail screen GUI;

FIGS. 13A-13B illustrate examples of a personal inventory reportgenerated in the personal inventory and product support system asdescribed in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Specifically,FIG. 13A illustrates one view of a personal inventory report, and FIG.13B illustrates three views of a personal inventory report GUI forviewing a personal inventory report in a mobile device platform;

FIGS. 14-16 illustrate examples of a client graphical user interface(GUI) implemented in a browser-based platform operating on a user deviceas described in accordance with embodiments of the invention.Specifically, FIG. 14 illustrates four views of a browser-based GUI forbrowsing items and adding support resources to items, FIG. 15illustrates three views of another browser-based GUI for browsing items,support resources and share options, FIG. 16A illustrates three views ofanother browser-based GUI for browsing items and any retailer andservicer resources, FIG. 16B illustrates two additional views forsupport and parts/accessories resources, and FIG. 16C illustrates twoadditional views for share options; and

FIG. 17 is a block diagram overview of a computer system or device whichmay be used with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In keeping with the foregoing observations, a novel personal inventoryand product support system is described in which a client operates inconjunction with a server or servers supporting one or more personalinventory and product support databases to help a user organizeinformation about their products, and to easily access that informationwith a user device. In one embodiment, the novel personal inventory andproduct support system helps the user to access curated product supportcontent for their products without requiring the user to search for orlocate the content.

The client may be implemented on a variety of platforms for userdevices, such as a mobile application on a mobile device using a mobileoperating system such as the iOS or Android operating systems, or on abrowser-based application on a stationary or mobile device using aMicrosoft Windows or MAC OS/X operating system. The one or more personalinventory and product support servers and databases may be implementedon a variety of server platforms, and in particular in a cloud-basedstorage platform to facilitate access by the client.

In one embodiment, the information about the user's products isautomatically organized on the client at the time of product acquisitionwithout the need for the user to enter the information manually. Forexample, the product information can be captured at the point of salefor automatic entry into the client, or as a result of a financialtransaction related to the acquisition of the product, such as, forexample, a credit card payment transaction between the user and aretailer. Alternatively, the product information can be obtained by theuser device after scanning a unique identifier associated with theproduct, such as, for example, a Universal Product Code (UPC) or aproduct serial number assigned by the product manufacturer.

In one embodiment, the client is configured to help the user organizeinformation about their products manually using an interactive graphicaluser interface (GUI) displayed on the user device. In one embodiment,whether automatically or manually, once organized, the informationconfigures the client operating on the user device to automaticallyreceive the latest product support content for the user's productswithout requiring the user to search for or locate the content.Likewise, the product support server automatically serves the latestproduct support content to the client whenever it becomes available.

In one embodiment, a product that is purchased as a used item is addedto the personal inventory of a user. This item is stored in the databaserepository of a cloud server. When a product recall is issued for theproduct, the cloud server either actively queries the appropriateexternal information source, or is registered to receive pushnotifications from the appropriate external information source to obtainthe details of the product recall and any information associated withthe product recall. This information is then delivered to the user'smobile device client on a substantially real-time basis so the user ispromptly alerted to the product recall details.

In one embodiment, the interactive GUI is typically displayed on theuser's mobile device client. In addition, or alternatively, aninteractive GUI can be displayed to the user on a different device, suchas a laptop, PC, or other stationary device. The interactive GUI cantake different forms depending on the user device operating systemplatform on which it is activated, ranging from applications operatingon mobile device platforms to web-based browser applications.

In one embodiment, the product support content can be curated from avariety of consumer product support services including conventional andthird party product support services. The curated product supportcontent is stored on a product support database accessible by the clientusing a server of a personal inventory and product support system, oronly the hyperlinks to the content are stored in the database. Thepersonal inventory and product support system can proactively curateproduct support content on behalf of users based on the common productidentifiers used by any one or more of the variety of consumer productsupport services, including conventional and third party product supportservers. The personal inventory and product support system alsofacilitates the accumulation on the product support database ofadditional content located by users of the client, and curated by theproduct support system.

In one embodiment, the product support content is automatically curatedon behalf of all users by the personal inventory and product supportsystem prior to serving the content to a particular user via the client.Such content can then be downloaded to the client once acquisition ororder of the relevant product occurs (or any time a user desires toobtain such content). In addition or alternatively, the product supportcontent can be manually curated by the user by using the client GUI toadd new content for personal use and/or to store the content on thepersonal inventory and product support system for access by other users.In another embodiment, the process of curating content can be acombination of software and manual steps.

In one embodiment, the product support content comprises any one or moreof interactive content and non-interactive content, including hyperlinksto content stored outside of the personal inventory and product supportsystem. The interactive content can include various media such as videosor hyperlinked web pages, whereas the non-interactive content caninclude PDF documents and/or other types of text and graphic files. Inone embodiment, the hyperlinks to content stored outside the personalinventory and product support system can include hyperlinks to contentstored on non-curated product support servers, such as the branded andthird party product support servers.

In the following description, numerous details are set forth to providea more thorough explanation of the present invention. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present inventionmay be practiced without these specific details. In other instances,well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form,rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the presentinvention.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the present invention also relates to apparatus forperforming the operations described herein. This apparatus may bespecially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise ageneral purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may bestored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is notlimited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks,CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), randomaccess memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, orany type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and eachcoupled to a computer system bus.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description below.

The processes or methods depicted in the figures described herein may beperformed by processing logic that comprises hardware (e.g. circuitry,dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitorycomputer readable medium), or a combination of both. Although theprocesses or methods are described in terms of some sequentialoperations, it should be appreciated that some of the operationsdescribed may be performed in a different order. Moreover, someoperations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially.

In addition, embodiments of the present invention are not described withreference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciatedthat a variety of programming languages may be used to implement theteachings of the invention as described herein.

A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes read onlymemory (“ROM”); random access memory (“RAM”); magnetic disk storagemedia; optical storage media; flash memory devices; non-transitorymedia, etc.

An Example of a Personal Inventory and Product Support System

FIG. 1 illustrates of an overview 100 of an exemplary personal inventoryand product support system 102 in an operating environment in accordancewith embodiments of the invention. The system 102 includes, amongothers, components to support the establishment of a curated productsupport content database 108 and a user product inventory database 110,functioning as cloud databases managed by a server 106. The server 106communicates with the client 104 over a network 112. The content of theserver 106 and client 104 cloud databases is accessible remotely overthe network 112 by authorized users.

In a typical environment, the client 104 is implemented as anapplication running on a mobile user device 118 having an interactivetouch screen display and a mobile operating system, such as an iOS orAndroid operating system. The client application 104 running on themobile user device 118 provides the user with an easy-to-use touchinteractive GUI to securely access and interact with information abouttheir products as managed by the server 106.

In some embodiments, the client 104 can also be implemented on either amobile or stationary user device 120 having a web-browser platform toenable the client 104 to interact with the server 106 for secure onlineaccess to product support data stored in either or both of the userproduct inventory database and the curated product support contentdatabase 108 in a manner similar to the application running on themobile user device 118.

During operation, the personal inventory and product support system 102can interface directly with merchant point of sale servers 114 andbank/financial transaction servers 116, as well as directly with theuser to obtain identifying information about the products acquired orowned by the user and for which the user would like to obtain productsupport. For example, the merchant's point of sale system or the creditcard issuer's transactions system could, for eligible users, transferthe product information to the personal inventory and product supportsystem 102 at the conclusion of the product purchase. Alternatively, auser can receive an electronic receipt from a merchant and/or creditcard issuer that provides the user with a link to optionally activatethe personal inventory and product support system 102 and/or transfer ofthe product information to the personal inventory and product supportsystem 102 upon activation.

During operation, the personal inventory and product support system 102further interfaces with a variety of proprietary or non-proprietaryproduct servers from which product support information may be obtained,such as branded product support servers and guided or self-help forums124, or third-party product support services, such as advertisingservices, parts and supplier services and self-help forums 122. In oneembodiment, the personal inventory and product support system 102further interfaces with proprietary or non-proprietary servers forproduct recall services 126, in which product recall information isreceived on behalf of users for products in their personal inventory,and distributed to them along with notifications to their respectiveclient devices as needed. The product recall services 126 can includeany one or more of product manufacturing and public safety agenciesoverseeing recalls of consumer products. In addition, the personalinventory and product support system 102 interfaces directly withauthorized users via the personal inventory and product supportclient(s) 104 to obtain user-curated content, such as original contentcreated by users or helpful information located and selected by users.

FIG. 2 illustrates the exemplary personal inventory and product supportsystem of FIG. 1 in further detail in which the system 102 interfaceswith external product support servers 124/122 to manage the system's owncurated product support database 108 in accordance with embodiments ofthe invention. As shown, the personal inventory and product supportsystem 102 includes a curator manager 109 component that interfaces withvarious proprietary and non-proprietary servers 124/122 to obtainproduct support content that is determined to be relevant for authorizedusers of the system 102. The personal inventory and product supportsystem 102 further includes a product recall manager 111 component thatinterfaces with the various proprietary and non-proprietary servers 126to obtain and/or receive product recall information that is determinedto be relevant for authorized users of the system 102, such as usershaving products in their personal inventory that are affected by therecall based on the common product identifiers associated with theproducts as explained further below.

In a typical embodiment, the curator manager 109 and product recallmanager 111 interface with the servers 122/124/126 by way of a queryapplication programming interface (API) 200 that is published by theservers 122/124/126 and employs common identifiers for products, such asa brand identification number, a model number, Universal Product Code(UPC), SKU number, etc. In some embodiments, a published API may beunavailable, in which case the product support content on at least thenon-proprietary servers may still be curated using other searchtechniques, such as full-text searching, and the like.

FIG. 3 illustrates the exemplary personal inventory and product supportsystem of FIG. 1 in further detail in which selected components of thesystem 102, including the curated product support database 108, theuser/product inventory database 110, and client 104/118/120 interoperatein accordance with embodiments of the invention.

In a typical embodiment, the types of curated product support contentthat are selected by the curator manager 109 for inclusion on thecurated product support content database 108 include interactive storedcontent 302, such content as how-to-videos, links to those videos, orlinks to product-specific apps. Another type of curated product supportcontent includes non-interactive stored content 304, such as usermanuals in PDF formatted documents and product specification pages, andcan include links to non-interactive user or product data stored locally308 on the client device 118/120. Other types of product support contentincludes links to remote content, such as web pages accessible onproprietary or non-proprietary third party servers, e.g. links torelevant pages of a self-help forum, and so forth.

In one embodiment, the curated product support content of database 108is selected or obtained by the curator manager 109 in real-time or nearreal-time concurrently with the acquisition of the product by a user.For example, at a merchant point-of-sale the product can beautomatically added to the user's product inventory stored in the userproduct inventory database 110. The addition of the product to theuser's product inventory in database 110 is facilitated by interfacingdirectly with the merchant point-of-sale or credit card issuer systemused to transact the purchase of the product or, in the case of manuallyadding the product, is facilitated by the product support client 104operating on client device 118/120. Once the product has been added toinventory, the curator manager 109 is triggered to obtain any availableproduct support content.

In addition or alternatively, the curated product support content ofdatabase 108 is selected or obtained by the curator manager 109 inreal-time or near real-time co-occurring with the content being madeavailable on the proprietary or non-proprietary databases from whichthey originate. In other words, the curated product support manager 109is configured to monitor the various proprietary and non-proprietarydatabases on behalf of authorized users for product support informationrelevant to the products currently stored in the users' inventory. Inthis manner, any new product support content is obtained by the system102 as soon as it becomes available.

In one embodiment, the curated product support content may originatewith one of the authorized users of the system 102, in which case thecurated product support manager 109 will notify other authorized usersthat have the same product.

In one embodiment, regardless of the manner in which the curated productsupport content is obtained, the curator manager 109 insures that everyauthorized user having a product related to the curated product supportcontent is notified about the availability of the newly obtainedcontent.

In some embodiments, the curated product support content is not onlystored on the curated product support content database 108, but is alsopushed to the authorized users by automatically storing or linking thecontent to the relevant product stores in the pertinent entries of theuser/product inventory database. When such an event occurs, each of theaffected authorized users is notified by way of the personal inventoryand product support client app 104/118/120. For example, in oneembodiment, the system 102 sends a notification message or email to theauthorized user on their user device 118/120 that cannot only alert butalso activate a link sending the user directly the personal inventoryand product support client application 104 operating on the device118/120. In another embodiment, the system 102 causes a notificationindicator to appear on, or in association with, one or more of thepersonal inventory and product support application 104 interfacesdisplayed on the devices 118/120. In one embodiment, the notification isaccompanied by an audio alert as configured on the user devices 118/120.Any number of other notification schemes may be employed by the system102 depending on the capabilities of the devices 118/120 and the user'spreferences.

In some embodiments, product recall information obtained or receivedfrom the product recall servers 126 can also be pushed by the productrecall manager 111 component to the authorized users by automaticallystoring or linking the product recall information to the relevantproduct stores in the pertinent entries of the user/product inventorydatabase. When such an event occurs, each of the affected authorizedusers is notified by way of the personal inventory and product supportclient app 104/118/120. For example, in one embodiment, the system 102sends a notification message or email to the authorized user on theiruser device 118/120 that cannot only alert but also activate a linksending the user directly the personal inventory and product supportclient application 104 operating on the device 118/120 where they canview the detailed information about the product recall, such as thenature of the recall and where to obtain assistance with the affectedproduct. The system 102 can also cause a notification indicator toappear on, or in association with, one or more of the personal inventoryand product support application 104 interfaces displayed on the devices118/120 in association with the product recall, similar to thenotification schemes described above.

FIG. 4 illustrates the exemplary personal inventory and product supportsystem of FIG. 1 in which the user product/inventory database component110 of the system 102 is shown in further detail in accordance withembodiments of the invention. As shown, the user/product inventorydatabase 110 is used as a repository for user-specific data 402, suchas, among other data, user identification, user profile, security andverification status data. Because this information is used to secureaccess to the system 102 and because the information is personallyidentifiable, it is maintained in accordance with suitable securityalgorithms. Some of the information, such as the verification status,may be used by the product support client app 104 to determine thenavigational options and indicators displayed on the app's GUI. Forexample, users that have created accounts on the system 102 but have notyet completed all of the verification steps will continue to be alertedand/or prompted to complete the verification steps prior to accessingthe product support information maintained in the system 102.

In one embodiment, the bulk of the content maintained on theuser/product inventory database 110 is the user assets content 404,which contains, for each product/asset acquired and inventoried by theuser, the product identification information that has either beenautomatically populated by the system 102 at the time of productacquisition, or has been manually entered by the user using the featuresof the product support client app 104. Besides the productidentification information, additional product related information thatis specific to the user and/or specific to the product includes thepurchase data, including the retailer from which the product wasacquired, the purchase price, product service data, availableaccessories, user notes, and the product's (asset's) location.

In one embodiment, the remaining content maintained on the user/productinventory database 110 includes online content. Online content generallyrefers to product-specific content that can be accessed onlineseparately or in addition to accessing the information using theconsumer product support app 104. The online content is typically linksto content stored on the curated product support content database 108,or to content stored on an external database including, among others,proprietary and non-proprietary content stored on the branded productsupport servers/help forums 124 and third party product support servers122, such as related product advertising services, parts and suppliesservices and self-help forums and user groups. In one embodiment, all ofthe content maintained on the user product inventory database 110 issecurely accessible to authorized users using the personal inventory andproduct support client application 104.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are high-level flow diagrams illustrating processes 500and 600 that may be utilized to operate a personal inventory and productsupport client in conjunction with a personal inventory and productsupport server in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Withreference to FIG. 5, in a user device, such as devices 118/120 (FIG. 1),at block 502, a client process 500 verifies a user signing in to use apersonal inventory and product support application 104. For example, aspart of the security procedures for maintaining the integrity of thesystem 102, in one embodiment the process 500 requires a prospectiveuser to not only create a user id, but to also confirm the existence ofthe contact information provided at initial signup, such as the emailaddress or mobile phone number. In one embodiment, this includessuccessfully receiving and/or responding to a notification sent to thecontact information.

The process 500 continues at decision block 504 to determine whether theuser is a first-time user. If so, then an automated process begins atblock 506 to create the user's first asset in the user/product inventorydatabase 110. This may be accomplished, for example, by extractinginformation from the user device 118 upon which the personal inventoryand product support app 104 is operating. In one embodiment, theextracted information includes such information as model number, serialnumber, operating system, etc. In this manner, the user device 118becomes the first product added to the user's personal inventory and thefirst product for which curated product support is obtained using thepersonal inventory and product support system 102.

At process block 508, the process 500 continues with the access anddisplay of the user's current inventory and the selected curated productsupport content. For example, the first product added to the inventoryin process block 506 is displayed in the first default folder providedby the application 104. At process block 510, the process continues withreceiving input from the user via the app's GUI to add, edit, organizeand/or print the user's current inventory. The adding, editing andorganization tools and navigational aids of the consumer product supportapplication 104 are described in further detail with reference to FIGS.7-14, and include the ability to upload one or more photographs of theproduct for insurance of other purposes.

In one embodiment, at block 510, the input to print the user's currentinventory triggers the creation of a complete product inventory report(an example of which is described and illustrated in FIG. 13) that ispresented to the user for immediate download and/or transmission to anemail address associated with the user, or to another email recipient asauthorized by the user. In one embodiment, instead of printing theproduct inventory report, the user is directed to a reader applicationon their device and the product inventory report is automaticallylaunched for reading on the device. The inventory report can be used,for example, to help a user to document assets for purposes of insuranceor warranty recovery.

In one embodiment, the process 500 continues at block 512 to processuser input to browse, share and/or interact with the curated productsupport content for selected assets. For example, if the user has aproduct that needs to be serviced, such as a printer device that is outof ink or a toaster oven that is not working properly, the user cannavigate the products displayed in the application's GUI to view partsand supplies links or service and repair information that have beencurated for the product.

At decision block 514, the process 500 continues by determining whetherit is necessary to relinquish control to a different application on theuser's device to view the information to which the user has navigated atblock 512, including determining whether it is necessary to relinquishcontrol to a third party application. For example, for some of thecurated product support content, a link to an external server may beprovided in order for the user to directly access the curated productcontent, such as a webpage on a user forum for the product, or a partscatalog website for product parts and supplies, or a reader app to viewa user manual in a PDF format, such as the iBook app on the iPhone. Insuch cases, the process 500 continues at block 516 to automaticallylaunch the third party app or service to access the curated productsupport content.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a process that may be utilized ina server device to operate a server 106 in conjunction with a client 104in accordance with embodiments of the invention. With reference to FIG.6, in a server computer, such as server 106 (FIG. 1), at block 602, aserver process 600 receives notification of a user's acquisition of aproduct from a third party such as a merchant 114 or a financialinstitution 116 with which the system 102 has established a businessrelationship that allows detailed product information to be obtained inconnection with a transaction for acquiring the product, such as, forexample, a credit card transaction, or a retail point of sale cashtransaction.

In one embodiment, the product detail information thus obtained is usedto automatically populate the product identifying and other information,such as purchase date, amount, brand and model number, etc. on theuser/product inventory database 110 eliminating the need for the user toenter the product information. In one embodiment, upon purchase, areceipt is sent (e.g., emailed) to the user while also sending thereceipt to the server 106, which triggers product support contactacquisition and subsequent user notification.

At process block 604, should the information about the product not bereadily available at the time of acquisition, then the user can manuallyadd the product to her inventory using the personal inventory andproduct support application 104 installed on her mobile device 118. Inthis scenario, at block 604, the server 106 operates in conjunction withthe client 104/118 to receive the product information and add it to theuser/product inventory database.

Regardless of whether the product detail information is obtainedautomatically or through manual entry, the process 600 continues atblock 608, in which the server 106 obtains available curated productsupport content from database 108, and makes that content accessible tothe user on their devices 118/120 via the personal inventory and productsupport application 104. Should curated product support content notcurrently be available from database 108 a process, such as a curatormanager 109 as described with reference to FIG. 2, is launched to searchfor and obtain content from external servers, including the branded andthird party product support servers 124/122 described with reference toFIGS. 1 and 2.

At process block 608, the process 600 continues with serving theavailable curated product support content upon user demand to the user'sdevice 118/120 in conjunction with the personal inventory and productsupport application 104. At decision block 610, the process 600 assiststhe client 104/118 in relinquishing control to view the productinformation that has been served including, at block 612, the automaticlaunch of the third party application or service to access the servedcontent.

FIGS. 7-12 illustrate examples of the personal inventory and productsupport app 104 graphical user interface (GUI) implemented on a touchdisplay device 118 as described in accordance with embodiments of theinvention. In the illustrated embodiment, the GUI elements are designedin accordance with iOS platform human interface design guidelines.However, the GUI elements could also be designed in accordance withother mobile operating platforms on which the personal inventory andproduct support app 104 can operate.

A sign in screen 702 provides the user with options to create an accountand sign in using various methods such as e-mail, Facebook and Google+.Once signed on, a user options screen 704 provides the user with optionsto edit personal information, change password, and verify their sign oninformation. The application “clock” indicator icon and text alerts theuser that the app is still awaiting verification. A menu button icon 706appearing in the screen's navigation bar will activate a sidebar screen708 to be superimposed over the leftmost portion of the screen to reveala set of 6 tiled icons that can be used to navigate to the next screen.For example, the SETTINGS icon will take the user back to the useroptions screen 704.

In FIG. 8, by activating the MY STUFF icon in the sidebar screen 802will take the user forward to the mail folders view screen 804. Thefolder view screen 804 shows all of the named folders in which the usercan organize their products. For example, in the illustrated examplethere are four folders: Phones, Home Computer, Home Appliances, and adefault folder named Random Stuff, each with a numeric indicator on theright that shows the number of products in the folder. In this case,each folder contains one product and the default folder is empty.

In the illustrated example, the Home Computer folder is opened to revealone item representing the one product that the folder contains, in thiscase an ABC branded computer printer. The appearance of the item in thefolder is an indication that the product it represents has beenidentified and the information stored on the user's product inventorydatabase 110. However, the leftmost indication of an exclamation point(!) informs the user that the product has not been verified against thecurated consumer product support database 108, meaning that the modelnumber and/or other identifying information hasn't yet been verifiedsufficiently to allow the system to obtain curated product supportinformation for the product. A rightmost indication of a network sharingsymbol informs the user that the user has elected to share the item'sproduct information with others.

In the illustrated example, the mail folders view screen 804 includestwo new navigational icons in the navigation bar: an organizational iconthat allows the user to create new folders, and a search icon thatallows the user to search through the existing folder names and itemnames to find particular folders or products. When the folders viewscreen 804 is activated for the first time, a application icon isdisplayed at the bottom of the screen to allow the user to quicklyaccess the add new stuff screen 1102 which will be described in furtherdetail below with reference to FIG. 11.

Returning to FIG. 8, the user can manipulate the folders and the itemscontained in the folders using the touch screen interface to swipe awaythe folders to delete them (if they are empty) and to drag and drop theitems representing the products to move them from one folder to anotherfolder. If a folder is tapped it opens to reveal the items it containsand tapped again it closes. An item is tapped to navigate to the itemdetails screen 810, a scrollable screen containing all of the detailedinformation that may be stored for that product. The item detailsscreens 802, 804 and 810 default to a browsable display, but can bechanged to an editing mode display through the activation of the composeicon (the “pencil” icon) appearing in the rightmost area of thenavigation bar.

In the illustrated example in FIG. 8, the brand, product name and modelnumber have already been entered, and the user is presented with fourcategories of additional details: Retailer, Servicer, Online Content andParts & Accessories that when activated will jump the user tocategory-specific screens (see FIGS. 10A-10B) when in a browsable modeof display. If the editing mode is selected by activating the composeicon, then the category browsing options disappear and the user can onlyscroll to the various portions of the data entry screen.

In FIG. 9, different portions of the scrollable details screen 810 areshown in screens 902, 904 and 906 operating in browsing mode, and inFIG. 10A, the category-specific screens for Retailer 1002 and in FIG.10B for Servicer 1004 and for the category of Online Content 1006. Eachof these screens is provided with a web-navigation button that will takethe user to the specified URL using the device's default browsingapplication, in this case the Safari application on the iOS platform. Inaddition, the Online Content screen 1006 is provided with an Add Contenttool button to add more product specific content. In one embodiment,activating the Add Content button on screen 1006 will launch thebrowser-based personal inventory and product support app 104, in whichthe user is able to add links to different types of product support.Examples of the browser-based personal inventory and product support app104 are shown in FIGS. 14-15.

In FIG. 11, two views of an Add New Stuff screen 1102 and 1104 is shownin which the user is prompted to enter basic identifying informationabout the product, such as a photo of the product and a name of theproduct. As shown, one option for entering the information quickly is toprompt the user to scan a product-specific code that identifies theproduct, such as the UPC code or the serial number associated with theproduct. An accurate scan of a recognizable code will trigger thepersonal inventory and product support system 102 to retrieve all of therelevant information from a branded or third party support server124/122, and to import the information into the user/product inventorydatabase 110 and the product support content database 108 for this item.

The scanning method of entry eliminates the necessity of having the userenter the information manually. However, in some instances entering theinformation manually may be necessary if there is no scan-ableinformation detected by the scanner or if the scan-able information isnot recognizable in the existing branded or third party support servers124/122. Instead the user is provided with one or more manual data entryscreens such as that shown in screen 1104 that prompt the user to enterthe information in pull-down entries in which the information issearched as it is entered to narrow down the possibilities and guide theuser to enter the information correctly. For example, if the brand nameis recognized, the user may be prompted to select from a series of modelnumbers associated with the brand name for a particular category ofproducts.

In FIG. 12A, another view of an Add New Stuff screen 1202 and in FIG.12B a corresponding Item Details screen 1204 is shown in which the useris prompted to enter the date of purchase using a date picker wheelcontrol.

In one embodiment, once the information identifying a product issuccessfully entered as illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12A-12B, whethermanually or through the use of scanning, an item details screen 1106 isdisplayed to the user with an indication that the product supportinformation has been connected to a corresponding entry in the curatedproduct support content database 108. This means that the user will beable to access whatever curated product support content is available forthat product.

FIGS. 13A-13B illustrate examples of a personal inventory reportgenerated in the personal inventory and product support system asdescribed in accordance with embodiments of the invention. The personalinventory report 1302, an example of which is shown in FIG. 13A, istypically generated on demand in response to a user request. The reporttypically includes the identifying product information, such as the usertitle, brand, product name, model number, and serial number, as well asthe purchase date and price and the product's location. The personalinventory report is designed to be used for insurance or otherrecord-keeping purposes.

In one embodiment the user is prompted to request the report uponactivation of the personal inventory and product support application 104on a device. For example, with reference to FIG. 8, by activating theEMAIL ME MY STUFF icon in the sidebar screen 802 will immediatelygenerate a PDF document with the user's entire personal productinventory and send it to the email address associated with the account.

With reference to FIG. 13B, another example of a user interface forobtaining a personal inventory report is illustrated. Specifically, FIG.13B illustrates a browser-based GUI of the personal inventory andproduct support app 104 operating on a mobile device platform in whichthe user is prompted to “Get selected assets as a PDF” in an “All stuff”web page 1306 that, when activated, will prompt the user in a pop-upwindow 1308 to select from a detail or summary layout of the personalinventory report, and provide the user with the option of downloadingthe report to her device or sending the report to an email addressassociated with the account or an alternate email address.

In the illustrated example, when selecting the option of downloading thereport, the user is provided with additional options in window 1310 toopen 1312 the downloaded report in an app on the user's mobile device,such as the iBooks app operating on an iPhone user mobile device. Inwindow 1314, the inventory report is displayed in the iBooks app, forexample, with the label “boughtstuff_assets” and can be viewed,bookmarked, and manipulated the same as any other document in iBooks.Note in the illustrated example of FIG. 13B, the personal inventoryreport further includes photos of the inventoried items, where theuser-selected photos of the item were uploaded by the user when addingor editing the item into the personal inventory and product supportsystem 102.

FIGS. 14-15, illustrate examples of the personal inventory and productsupport app 104 graphical user interface (GUI) implemented in a browserplatform operating on any client device 118/120 capable of supporting abrowser platform as described in accordance with embodiments of theinvention. In the illustrated embodiment, a welcome web page 1402 isdisplayed with options to browse the user's “stuff,” referring to theuser's products that have been stored in the user/product inventorydatabase 110 of the product support server 106. Other options includethe above-described option to email a personal inventory report to theuser. The user is also provided with the option to add more resources.Once activated, this option will cause a pop-up entry window 1406 toappear on the user interface to prompt the user to select which productthe resource is for, and the type and location of the resource. Forexample the user may indicate the resource is a PDF formatted usermanual that is located at a particular URL or file pathname, or that theresource is a how-to video located at a particular URL address.

In one embodiment, the user may create their own video content stored,for example, locally on their device 118/120 in storage 308. The pop-upentry window 1406 can prompt the user to select the locally stored videocontent for upload to the user's personal inventory data stored in theuser product inventory database 110 in the personal inventory andproduct support system 102. The server 106 can then, in turn, curate theuploaded video and, if appropriate, store the video on the curatedproduct support database 108 in preparation for serving the curateduser-supplied video content to other authorized users in accordance withthe user's permissions and preferences.

FIG. 15 illustrates a set of screens similar in function to those inFIG. 14, but that have been designed for use on either a mobile orstationary device's browser interface. The screens 1502, 1504 and 1506are designed using a tabbed UI that specifies a Stuff tab in 1502, aSupport tab in 1504, and a Share tab in 1506. In the Stuff tab the useris able to browse the product details, while in the Support tab the useris able to view the curated product support content that is currentlyavailable for the product, as well as to enter additional resources thatcan be added to the curated support content for this product. The Sharetab allows users to share links to web pages or other information aboutthe products that are in their product inventory database.

FIGS. 16A-16C illustrate additional examples of the client GUIimplemented in a browser-based platform operating on a personalcomputing device. In these examples, similar to those illustrated inFIG. 15, the screens 1602, 1604, 1606, 1608, 1610, 1612 and 1616 aredesigned using a tabbed UI that specifies a Stuff tab in 1602, aRetailer tab in 1604, a Servicer tab in 1606, a Support tab in 1608, aParts and Accessories tab in 1610 and a Share tab in 1612 and 1616. Theclient GUI automatically displays the additional tabs for the Retailer1604, Servicer 1606, and Parts and Accessories 1610 for those productsin the user's personal inventory for which such information isavailable.

As in the client GUI illustrated in FIG. 15, in the Stuff tab 1602 inFIG. 16A, the user is able to browse the product details. In theRetailer 1604 and Servicer 1606 tabs, the user is able to browse andhyperlink directly to the retailer from which the product was acquiredand any online servicer information that may be available for theproduct. With reference to FIG. 16B, as in FIG. 15, in the Support tab1608 the user is able to view the curated product support content thatis currently available for the product, as well as to enter additionalresources that can be added to the curated support content for thisproduct (where the entry of the additional resources may be carried outas described in further detail with reference to FIG. 14). The Parts andAccessories tab 1610 enables the viewer to browse the various parts andaccessories that are available for the product with links, whenavailable, to the retailers from which the parts and accessories may bepurchased.

With reference to FIG. 16C, as in FIG. 15, the Share tab 1612 and 1616allows users to share links to web pages or other information about theproducts that are in their product inventory database. In theillustrated example, the user is provided with a button labeled “Startsharing this asset” 1614 that, when activated, provides the user withthe shortened URL 1618 generated for the asset information stored in thepersonal inventory and product support system 102, and the ability forthe user to copy that shortened URL to send it other with whom the userwishes to share the information.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram overview of a computer system or device whichmay be used with one embodiment of the invention. For example, thesystem 1700 may be used as a client or a server as shown in FIG. 1. Notethat while FIG. 17 illustrates various components of a computer systemor device, it is not intended to represent any particular architectureor manner of interconnecting the components; as such details are notgermane to the present invention. It will also be appreciated thatnetwork computers, various types of user devices, including hand-heldcomputers, mobile devices, cell phones, tablets and other dataprocessing systems, any of which may have fewer components or perhapsmore components than illustrated in FIG. 17, may also be used withembodiments of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 17, the computer system 1700, which is a type of a dataprocessing system, includes a bus or interconnect 1702 which is coupledto one or more microprocessors 1703 and a ROM 1707, a volatile RAM 1705,and a non-volatile memory 1706. The microprocessor 1703 is coupled tocache memory 1704. The bus 1702 interconnects these various componentstogether and also interconnects these components 1703, 1707, 1705, and1706 to a display controller and display device 1708, as well as toinput/output (I/O) devices 1710, which may be mice, keyboards, modems,network interfaces, printers, and other devices which are well-known inthe art.

Typically, the input/output devices 1710 are coupled to the systemthrough input/output controllers 1709. The volatile RAM 1705 istypically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) which requires powercontinuously in order to refresh or maintain the data in the memory. Thenon-volatile memory 1706 is typically a magnetic hard drive, a magneticoptical drive, an optical drive, or a DVD RAM or other type of memorysystem which maintains data even after power is removed from the system.Typically, the non-volatile memory will also be a random access memory,although this is not required.

While FIG. 17 shows that the non-volatile memory is a local devicecoupled directly to the rest of the components in the data processingsystem, the present invention may utilize a non-volatile memory which isremote from the system; such as, a network storage device which iscoupled to the data processing system through a network interface suchas a modem or Ethernet interface. The bus 1702 may include one or morebuses connected to each other through various bridges, controllers,and/or adapters, as is well-known in the art. In one embodiment, the I/Ocontroller 1709 includes a USB (Universal Serial Bus) adapter forcontrolling USB peripherals. Alternatively, I/O controller 1709 mayinclude an IEEE-1394 adapter, also known as FireWire adapter, forcontrolling FireWire devices.

Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performingthe operations herein, such as a computer program that is stored in anon-transitory computer or machine-readable medium. A machine-readablemedium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readableby a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g.,computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readablestorage medium (e.g., read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory(“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flashmemory devices).

In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. Itwill be evident that various modifications may be made thereto withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than arestrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for a managing information aboutproducts, the method comprising: in a device associated with a user:receiving data identifying a product acquired by the user; configuringthe device to receive product support content for the acquired productbased on the identifying data, the product support content having beencurated from a plurality of content servers on behalf of the user;receiving a notification that curated product support content for theproduct is available; and presenting the curated product support contentto the user.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving dataidentifying the product acquired by the user further comprises: scanninga product identifier uniquely assigned to the product; and receivingconfirmation that the scanned product identifier represents dataidentifying the product acquired by the user.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein receiving data identifying the product acquired by the userfurther comprises: receiving transaction data documenting an acquisitionof the product, the transaction data originating from any one or more ofa merchant point of sale and a financial transaction server at the timethe product is acquired by the user; and receiving the data identifyingthe product based on the transaction data documenting the acquisition ofthe product.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the curatedproduct support content to the user includes an interactive presentationof the curated product support content in a media player operating onthe device, the media player including any one of a including any one ofa video player, an electronic document reader, an audio player and aweb-based browser.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: in thedevice associated with the user: generating product support content onthe device, including video content; uploading the product supportcontent to one of the plurality of content servers for curating onbehalf of any one of the user and other authorized users that acquiredthe same product.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: in thedevice associated with the user: organizing an inventory of products,wherein organizing the inventory includes: generating folders to containthe data identifying the products; receiving user input to manipulatethe data identifying the products into the folders; and presenting thedata contained in the folders in a personal inventory report.
 7. Asystem for managing product information, the system comprising: aninventory repository for an inventory of products associated with auser; a curated support repository of product information curated fromone or more resources containing information about products; a clientoperating on behalf of the user with which the inventory of products isassociated; and a server in communication with the inventory and curatedsupport repositories and the client, the server having a processor,wherein the processor, in response to a request received from theclient, is to: organize the inventory of products associated with theuser to include a newly acquired product; query the one or moreresources for information about the newly acquired product; selectrelevant information about the newly acquired product for storage on thecurated support repository; and serve the relevant information from thecurated support repository to the client.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein the server processor is further to: monitor the one or moreresources for information about products in the inventory of productsassociated with the user; and notify the client on behalf of the userwhen relevant information about products in the inventory of productsassociated with the user has been selected for storage on the curatedsupport repository.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or moreresources for information about products in the inventory of productsincludes resources for product recall information, and the relevantinformation includes product recall notifications issued by any one ormore of a product manufacturer and public safety agency overseeingproduct recalls.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the server processoris further to suspend interaction with the client upon the client launchof a separate application to view the relevant information, the separateapplication including any one of a video player, an electronic documentreader, an audio player and a web-based browser.
 11. The system of claim7, wherein to organize, in response to the request received from theclient operating on behalf of the user, the server processor is furtherto: create folders in which to contain information about any one or moreof the products in the user's inventory, the folders including a defaultfolder and one or more user defined folders; assign each of the productsin the user's inventory to the default folder or to the one or more userdefined folders in accordance with the request; and serve the foldersand content for the products assigned to the folders for presentation onthe client.
 12. The system of claim 7, wherein to organize, in responseto the request received from the client operating on behalf of the user,the server processor is further to: generate a report of the inventoryof products associated with the user; and cause the report to bepresented to the client in a format suitable for presenting on a displayinterface and printing on a printer device in communication with theclient.
 13. A machine-readable, non-transitory, tangible storage mediumstoring executable instructions which cause a user device to perform amethod for managing assets in communication with a network-based assetsupport system, the method comprising: receiving from the network-basedasset support system information identifying an asset acquired by theuser; configuring the user device to receive content for supporting theacquired asset, the content having been curated by the network-basedasset support system from a plurality of content servers on behalf ofthe user; receiving a notification that curated content for the asset isavailable from the network-based asset support system; and presentingthe curated content on the user device.
 14. A machine readable,non-transitory, tangible storage medium as in claim 13, wherein themethod is further comprising: receiving information describing the assetacquired by the user from an interface of the user device, wherein theinterface of the user device includes any one or more of: a touchinterface for receiving manual input of the information identifying anddescribing the asset, and a scanner interface for receiving scannerinput of an identifier uniquely assigned to the asset; transmitting tothe network-based asset support system the scanner input of theidentifier uniquely assigned to the asset; and receiving from thenetwork-based asset support system information describing the assetbased on the transmitted scanner input.
 15. A machine readable,non-transitory, tangible storage medium as in claim 13, wherein themethod is further comprising: receiving transaction data documenting anacquisition of the asset, the transaction data originating from any oneor more of a merchant point of sale and a financial transaction serverin connection with the acquisition of the asset; and receiving anidentifier uniquely assigned to the asset based on the transaction datadocumenting the acquisition of the asset; and receiving informationdescribing the asset from the network-based asset support system basedon the received identifier uniquely assigned to the asset.
 16. A machinereadable, non-transitory, tangible storage medium as in claim 13,wherein the method of presenting the curated content to the userincludes operating a media player on the device to present the curatedcontent, the media player including any one of a video player, anelectronic document reader, an audio player and a web-based browser. 17.A machine readable, non-transitory, tangible storage medium as in claim13, wherein the method is further comprising: organizing an inventory ofassets acquired by the user on the user device, wherein organizing theinventory includes: generating folders to contain the informationidentifying and describing the assets; presenting the folders in angraphical user interface enabling the user to interact with theinformation contained in the folders, including adding, removing andmodifying the information identifying and describing the assets;maintaining the organized inventory of assets in cooperation with thenetwork-based asset support system; and generating on demand a personalinventory report of assets acquired by the user based on the organizedinventory of assets maintained in cooperation with the network-basedasset support system.